The SUMMAR was so advanced and desired that LEICA was backordered for over a year after they were introduced. When new, it sold for the equivalent of nearly $2,000 in today's dollars.

The LEICA SUMMAR 50mm f/2 is an extremely sharp lens in the center, and softer on the sides compared to LEICA's newest lenses. In most cases, no one will notice any difference since the sides are never in focus anyway most of the time.

But wait: this SUMMAR isn't really softer on the sides; it has field curvature which pulls the plane of best focus closer to the camera at the sides. In other words, the SUMMAR may look less sharp for photos of boring walls and tree ridges at infinity, but in actual use where things at the sides are often close to the camera (think walls and floors), the SUMMAR may be sharper in actual use than newer lenses. Better, for portraiture where the background is further away at the sides, the SUMMAR will throw the background a little more out of focus.

This LEICA SUMMAR 50mm f/2 was Leica's highest-performance normal lens from its 1932 introduction until it was replaced by the SUMMITAR in 1939.

Today the SUMMAR remains ultrasharp even by modern standards in the center at all apertures, and becomes softer on the sides at larger apertures, which is only visible if you're shooting boring flat walls where everything would be in focus in the first place.

The SUMMAR is uncoated, meaning that it looks like it's made out of ordinary window glass (which it's not). This means that it may have less contrast in the shadows under contrasty light, and using a hood is a good idea most of the time. Even uncoated, you can see that it creates sharp, contrasty and colorful images.

The SUMMAR is also the smallest and lightest of all LEICA f/2 lenses. With a small A36 front filter mount, it doesn't block the finder of any LEICA screw mount or M camera.

With a trivially simple screw-mount adapter, this LEICA SUMMAR 50mm f/2 works perfectly on every LEICA M camera, from the LEICA M3 of 1954, today's LEICA M7, LEICA MP and LEICA M9. It works great on the M typ 240, but you'll need an off-brand adapter if you also want to use it with Live View.

These screw-mount lenses are thus perfectly compatible with all LEICAs made since 1932.

Be careful with the lesser LEICAs, like the LEICA M9 and LEICA M typ 240, whose user manuals caution that design flaws in these newer cameras may not be compatible with collapsing this lens as designed. LEICA goes so far as to warn that these defects will lead to the destruction of the M9 if you collapse a lens into it as intended by The Prophet.

I measure 18.18mm extension from the rear flange when fully retracted. I collapsed this on an M9 with no problem, which seems to have a few millimeters left over for safety.

As explained at the top, the plane of best focus actually pulls-in closer to the camera at the sides. This may lead to sharper pictures for interior and landscape shots, and helps throw backgrounds more out of focus for portraits.

This is pretty funny, because most of LEICA's bellyaching about why you needed to buy the newer lenses it designed to replace this lens were based on FUD trying to scare you that newer lenses had larger elements to fix the edge falloff of this lens. Well, this first f/2 lens doesn't have enough falloff to worry about in the first place! Ha!

I've greatly emphasized it below by shooting a gray field and presenting it against another gray field:

This SUMMAR is as sharp in the center as the modern SUMMICRONs at every aperture, and just a teeny-tiny bit less soft in the center at f/2 than today's SUMMICRON-M. This means that even if you're shooting M9 DNGs and looking really close, the center sharpness will scare you.

The sides are less sharp, mostly due to field curvature. This is this lens' character. If you want surgically-sharp sides, duh, shoot a new SUMMICRON-M.

This SUMMAR is sharp enough for most work today, and is a perfect example of why LEICA's lenses have always been held in such high regard. In its day, LEICAs had to compete in sharpness with the more popular 4x5" and 5x7" cameras shot by most people.

The 6-pointed stars are most useful for Christmas, ski and snow-boarding photography, mimicking snowflakes, but you need a really brilliant point of light and need to stop most of the way down to get anything.

The SUMMAR collapses for easy carrying. Be sure to extend it before shooting, or your photos will be nothing but blurry round images in the middle of your film.

There are guide lines for collapsing and erection. You'll see an index mark on the focus mount near the erection tube, just beyond the "r" in "mtr." Twist the lens one way to unlock, and the other way to lock in the erect position.

My service man, Gus Lazzari, recommends that the diaphragm not be left stopped down for more than 24 hours at a time, otherwise lubricants can vaporize and start recollecting on the insides of the lens after Gus worked so hard to overhaul it. Try to put it away set to f/2

Many thanks also to Gus Lazzari for doing a complete overhaul so I could review it here.

Gus, America's leading LEICA specialist, completely renovated my SUMMAR, which had so much internal fog and haze that I thought it was good only for the trash. Miraculously, Gus was able to clean it all out.

LEICA's lubricants vaporize, and as the decades pass they condense back on the optics inside the lens, so every SUMMAR will need service at some point in time.

Remember if you send him yours for service that he does all the work himself, so it takes a while for him to give each camera the care it deserves.

This SUMMAR is a perfectly swell and sharp lens for straight photography today.

As an uncoated lens, you are asking for flare if pointed into the sun. Use a hood.

The front of the lens is made of chalk-soft lead-crystal flint glass, so most samples have a lot of wear; it's hard to find a clean one after 75 years of use.

If you want a classic look, there's also no better way to get it than to shoot a real classic lens like this. If you want the SUMMAR look, there is no way to duplicate it with computer filters.

99% of the SUMMARs you may purchase will require an overhaul to bring them back to proper performance. It there's any significant amount of haze in the flashlight test, your images will be much more foggy than they should be. As shown on this page, your images from your SUMMAR ought to be as sharp and contrasty as from any other lens within reason.

If you have any problems with your SUMMAR, it's probably because it's foggy and needs an professional service. All LEICA lenses older than about the 1980s need internal cleaning today; it's LEICA's choice of gassy lubricants that causes this.

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